Roy Moore, the ick factor and the evidence (2 of 3)

This is the second of three post-Roy-Moore-election posts on ways that I try to look in particular to popular scandal claims. (Part 1 is from December 14).

Roy Moore's scandal and "Pizzagate"

I think it's interesting to compare the story to the "Pizzagate" affair, in which a completely made-up story about Hillary Clinton running a child prostitution ring out of a pizza parlor went viral and eventually featured a guy showing up for for the evildoers and starting shooting in the place after hearing about the completely fabricated accusation.

What is the source of the story?

Moore: The Washington Post, one of the country's leading newspapers. Which has shown some very bad journalistic judgment on issues like the Iraq War and Clinton pseudoscandals, but still adhere to professional journalistic practice.

Pizzagate: Alex Jones, crackpot "alt-right" websites, chain e-mails, supposedly Russian bots, too. With no supporting reporting from legitimate news sites like the Los Angeles Times or the Washington Post. Even mainstream news organizations who had been gullible for one Clinton pseudoscandal after the other didn't give any credibility to Pizzagate.


On what is the story based?

Moore: David "Bobo" Brooks, PBS Newshour 11/10/2017 said, "this ... is a very credible, well-sourced story. The people didn’t come out of the woodwork. The women who are the accusers were pulled out and interviewed and finally consented to give their stories." Bobo was right about that.

Pizzagate: Pulled straight out of somebody's ass.

Is the story plausible on its face?

Moore: Yes. Which is not the same as being true.

Pizzagate: Absurdly implausible. Which is not the same as being impossible. Donald Trump, after all is currently the President of the United States, a reality that remains absurdly implausible.

Are their plausible motives for making the story up?

Moore: Yes, politics.

Pizzagate: Yes, politics. Although in this case there is a more than two decades old political and media obsession with Clinton pseudoscandals.

In short, the initial report on the Moore scandal was too credible to be reasonably dismissed. The Pizzagate story was never more than a rightwing fantasy.

Robert Blaskiewicz has a helpful analysis on how a crackpot story like Pizzagate can be manufactured, Fake News Begets Fake News: Pizzagate
www.csicop.org/ 01/25/2017.

I didn't find anything in the original WaPo story on the Moore allegations to make me think it was a deliberate fabrication.

Pragmatic Thinking on Approaching the Problem/Getting Beyond a Simple "Believe the Women"

I certainly understand that one- or two-word slogans are useful and necessary. Occasionally even inspired.

And I understand and sympathize (up to a point) with the sentiment behind the slogan "Believe the Women" or "Believe Women." #Metoo was understandable in the particular moment in which it exploded on social media in 2017.

But in order to parse the news about pretty much anything, the main guideline needs to be believe the evidence.

Here are some notable examples of writers who seemed to me to be striving for a believe-the-evidence view of the news as it was emerging in the "Roy Moore moment."

Gene Lyons, Believe Juanita? Maybe, But Maybe Not National Memo 11/23/2017

Laura McGann, Nancy Pelosi is that woman Vox 11/26/2017

Josh Marshall, Trump Skates. But It’s Not the Press’s Fault. TPM 11/29/2017:

Trump doesn’t care. His constituency is overwhelmingly white and disproportionately older. Indeed, many define their political outlook against the attitudes which are so prevalent among young Americans. Their constituencies are different. They act differently.

The simple fact is that President Trump is dependent on his core supporters. They do not care about his long history of predatory behavior. Republican elected officials may care themselves. But they are also dependent on Trump’s core supporters. Once it was clear, a week or two out from the Access Hollywood revelations in October 2016, they stopped caring either.

Do women ever lie about such things? If they work for Project Veritas, they do: Shawn Boburg et al, A woman approached The Post with dramatic — and false — tale about Roy Moore. She appears to be part of undercover sting operation. Washington Post 11/27/2017.

StrategyCamp (???) A Survivor’s Defense of Al Franken Medium 11/22/2017

These two articles provide some caution about assuming that having more women in management will in itself lead to better handling of sexual harassment problems:

Olga Khazan, Why Don't More Women Want to Work With Other Women? The Atlantic 01/21/2014

Joan Williams, Who Wants to Work for a Woman? Harvard Business Review 11/19/2013